Taking a Hiatus from Blogging? Don’t Apologize
“I don’t understand blog posts, emails and other messages that begin with an apology,” writes Seth Godin on his blog today.
My readers and clients often ask me:
If life gets in the way and I haven’t blogged in a while, should I apologize to my readers when I return?
No.
Frankly, the vast majority of your readers don’t care much about you. When they read your blog post, they’re most interested in what’s in it for them.
If you steadily blog 5-7 days per week and suddenly fall off the radar for a while, you will get comments and e-mails from faithful readers who are concerned that something happened to you. If you’re committed enough to blog daily over a long period of time and an illness or family emergency prevents you from blogging, it’s fine to let your readers know why you’re out of commission.
But committed bloggers aren’t the ones who are constantly apologizing to their readers. The ones who are apologizing are those who have good intentions to blog, but never get around to it. They’re those who blog regularly for three months and then the creativity well dries up. They decide to take a “short” break, which turns into a month-long break.
Guilt-ridden with letting their readers (and themselves) down, they open their post with an apology.
“If you’re sorry to interrupt me with that spam, don’t send it,” writes Seth Godin. “If you know that yet another blog post on a topic that’s not of interest to your readers will annoy them, don’t post it.”
If you’re having trouble blogging regularly and need to take a break from blogging, just do it. No apologies.
If other things in life seem more important than blogging (and they are), take a hiatus from blogging. No apologies.
If you’re traveling to Florida to teach at a conference (like I will be next week), and you know you’re going to have absolutely zero time to blog, just say no to blogging that week. No apologies.
Great advice, Laura, thanks! The first time I let a week pass between posts (I got sick the first week of January), I started my next blog post with a quasi-apology (I didn’t apologize outright but I did mention that I’d been sick and that was why I hadn’t posted in over a week). After reading this, I’ll never do that again. Thanks for letting us know that it is ok to take a break when we need to without having to justify it! Blogging is like any other activity, sometimes you need time away to re-charge and refresh so we can come back energized. Good luck teaching at the conference in Florida!
.-= Alanna Klapp´s last blog ..The Army of Women (and Men) =-.
Great advice, Laura, thanks! The first time I let a week pass between posts (I got sick the first week of January), I started my next blog post with a quasi-apology (I didn’t apologize outright but I did mention that I’d been sick and that was why I hadn’t posted in over a week). After reading this, I’ll never do that again. Thanks for letting us know that it is ok to take a break when we need to without having to justify it! Blogging is like any other activity, sometimes you need time away to re-charge and refresh so we can come back energized. Good luck teaching at the conference in Florida!
.-= Alanna Klapp´s last blog ..The Army of Women (and Men) =-.
Thanks. Your post feels like a breath of fresh air!
Thanks. Your post feels like a breath of fresh air!